The upcoming Metal Build God Gundam has finally been given a release window and a pretty steep price tag, but it still looks astonishing.
It’s taken a good while for this toy to shake out from its previews a good while ago, but we’re finally getting a proper Metal Build God Gundam toy this August.
The God Gundam is the final iteration of Domon Kasshu’s ride of choice in Mobile Fighter G Gundam, replacing the previous Shining Gundam.
In the US release, it’s often called the Burning Gundam, with the Devil Gundam also being changed to the Dark Gundam. This was apparently because there was an incident where employees at Walmart went through every box of a shipment of Gundam Wing toys and removed and returned all instances of the Gundam Deathscythe Hell, so the names were changed in G Gundam to avoid similar issues.
In any case, we haven’t had a really good God Gundam toy in a really long time, and this Metal Build version looks to be one of the best yet.
As with other Metal Build releases, the styling is overly athleticized, which makes sense considering the host anime it comes from.
Normally, I prefer mecha toys to be treated as per the anime they originate from, especially when they are designed by people such as Kunio Okawara. However, this stylized version is most certainly in keeping with the spirit of G Gundam, so it does feel right, at least.
The only downside is that this is both an expensive toy, coming in at 44,000 yen (or around $293 at the current exchange rate) and also a Premium Bandai release.
Pre-orders start today in Japan, and it’s not clear whether this Metal Build toy will come Westward, although I’m hopeful we will see it released outside of Japan at some point.
After all, G Gundam was a popular anime when it came Westward in the early noughties, and its later release on Blu-ray, which I also reviewed, was received well. It’s also still available to stream via Crunchyroll, so it’s definitely an available and relevant anime (with a nice high user score, too).
The only thing here that does puzzle me is that the Metal Build Zeta Gundam costs the same, but this Metal Build God Gundam doesn’t transform. Yes, it has other gimmicks (shown above), but the engineering is arguably less complex, and yet it still has a similar price point.
In any case, I’m glad that the Metal Build God Gundam is finally happening. I just hope Western fans get the chance to pick one up in the near future.
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